A member of Fingal County Council has brought a High Court action challenging the alleged removal from its website of parts of a recent local authority meeting that was broadcast to the public.
The action has been brought by Independent Councillor Jimmy Guerin who claims that the removal of comments he made during the meeting, and a subsequent refusal by the council's executive to provide him with a record of the meeting, breaches his right to freedom of expression.
The comments were made at a council meeting held on January 18th last when members were considering the council's development plan.
Mr Guerin claims he raised "bona fide questions" during the meeting about a possible conflict of interest on the part of another council member in respect of the plan.
The member, he said in a sworn statement to the court, is an employee of large planning consultants who had made a statement to the council in December 2021 concerning a potential conflict.
The comments were made in good faith and on foot, Mr Guerin claims, of genuine concerns he and other elected members hold.
In accordance with the council's established practice, the meeting was the subject of a live webcast in real time.
A recording of the proceedings was published on the council's website.
Shortly afterwards a letter was sent to the council, purportedly from solicitors acting for the member in respect of whom Cllr Guerin said he had raised concerns about, and was circulated to the other elected members.
'Distorted account'
That letter, Cllr Guerin claims, took issue with his comments, and he claims presented a distorted account of the meeting.
Cllr Guerin claims that following the receipt of the letter, the council's chief executive took a decision to remove from the website the sections of the meeting.
He also claims that his application for a full recording and transcript of the meeting was also refused.
He claims that decisions by the council's executive to remove the material are unlawful and amount to a fundamental and unprecedented departure from established practises which have been applied by the council.
The decision, he claims, has removed from the public domain the only accurate record of what happened at the meeting.
He claims that he has been denied the opportunity to correct the record in the face of the distorted account of events that are contained in the solicitor's letter sent to the council.
Orders sought
As a result, he has brought judicial review proceedings against Fingal County Council.
Represented in his action by Paul McGarry SC, Cllr Guerin seeks an order quashing the council executive's decision to redact and remove contributions made by him from its website in the recording of a meeting that occurred on January 18th last.
He also seeks an order quashing the executive's decision to deny him access to a formal record, transcript or recording of the meeting of January 18th last.
Cllr Guerin further seeks declarations that the council executive's decision to alter the webcast was unlawful, was outside the executive's powers, and breaches his right to freedom of expression.
The matter came before Mr Justice Charles Meenan on Monday.
The judge, on an ex-parte basis, granted Cllr Guerin permission to bring his challenge.
The matter will return before the court in April.
